How to market on r/Design
Can you promote on r/Design?
No. The rules ban self-promotion, and posts that sell get removed. What the rules say:
“This community is not for self-promotion - social media pushing, surveys, or advertising.”
Rule 1: No promotional/commercial activities.
The rules
As the moderators wrote them, shortened where they run long.
- No promotional/commercial activities.This community is not for self-promotion - social media pushing, surveys, or advertising. It’s also not for job-searching or recruitment: please use r/designjobs, r/forhire, r/jobs, or r/picrequests instead. You also…
- If posting someone else's work, credit them appropriately.If posting someone else's work, use the 'Someone Else's Work' flair. If posting your own work but it's been heavily inspired by, or has drawn on, elements of another person's design, you must credit them. Claiming…
- All shared work must have a comment for context.You must write a comment explaining any work that you post for feedback. The work’s objective, its audience, your design decisions, etc. This information is necessary to allow people to understand your project and…
- No basic/repeated questions.Please Google your question first, and then use the search function on Reddit to see whether someone else has asked your question already. This also applies to font identification questions: use r/identifythisfont…
- This is not a “homework” forum.This is not a place to pick the brains of other designers to do your job for you. You can ask questions, or post asking for inspiration, but please don’t cross the line to getting other users to do your work for you.
- No off-topic/non-civil discussion.We recognise that design can be political and controversial. We welcome that content here, but please keep all discussion in the comments civil and focussed on the design. This rule also applies to responding to those…
- No memes, AI farming and low-quality postsMEmes will be removed Low effort posts will be removed Obvious AI-generated posts will be removed and will result in a ban. This also relates to 'What Style is This' posts that are clearly based for AI prompts
- Is it suitable for this sub?To separate r/design from the various other creative industry subs, artwork and posts of pieces that have functional purpose should be submitted here. There's various other subs for /r/art, /r/DigitalArt, photoshop…
Full text on Reddit: r/Design rules.
What people asked this week
73 of the last 191 posts on r/Design (the past 6 days) asked a question or for a recommendation. Here are 12, starting with people asking for a tool, a service or someone to hire.
- Subtle variations on red accent colour, which do you think? I'm open to other suggestions on accent colours and placement.r/Design · 22 Oct
- What’s the best graphic design courses not software courses?r/Design · 19 Oct
- best design company you would want to work for?r/Design · 24 Oct
- What should be on every sign package before it leaves the shop?r/Design · 24 Oct
- Is this how design tests are?r/Design · 24 Oct
- Is there a good way to preview PSD/PSB files directly in Windows File Explorer?r/Design · 23 Oct
- What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word DESIGN??r/Design · 23 Oct
- How can I transition from graphic production to editorial design or illustration?r/Design · 23 Oct
- Does Your Layout Survive Zoom?r/Design · 22 Oct
- What would you do in my situation?r/Design · 22 Oct
- How u make this type of app?r/Design · 22 Oct
- What takes longer than people expect when creating a 3D design?r/Design · 22 Oct
How to show up here without getting banned
- Don't post about your product. Answer questions in the comments with real expertise instead. People who find your answers useful check your profile, so say what you do there.
- Mind the AI rule. The rules cover AI-written posts: “Obvious AI-generated posts will be removed and will result in a ban.”
- Read the sidebar and pinned posts. Moderators often add rules there, and rules change. Check r/Design's before your first post.
- Build a history first. Comment helpfully on r/Design for a few weeks before you post. Accounts that only ever promote get filtered.
More on how this works across Reddit: Reddit's self-promotion rules, explained and the full Reddit marketing playbook.
Related communities
- How to market on r/graphic_design: graphic designers learning, sharing work and finding mentors.
- How to market on r/UI_Design: interface designers sharing work and asking for critique.
- How to market on r/UXDesign: UX designers discussing research, design problems and careers.
- How to market on r/webdev: web developers talking front end, back end and careers.
- How to market on r/web_design: web designers sharing work and asking for feedback.
Questions
Can I post my startup on r/Design?+
No. The rules ban self-promotion, and posts that sell get removed. Rule 1 says: “No promotional/commercial activities.” Answer questions in the comments instead, and let people find your product from your profile.
How active is r/Design?+
r/Design has about 4.3M members and averaged 31 new posts a day over the last four weeks. Of its latest 191 posts, 73 asked a question or for a recommendation.
Does r/Design allow links?+
The rules don't ban links, but a link to your own product still counts as self-promotion, so the self-promotion rules apply.
What do people ask about on r/Design?+
Recent examples: “Subtle variations on red accent colour, which do you think? I'm open to other suggestions…”, “What’s the best graphic design courses not software courses?” and “best design company you would want to work for?”. The full list of this week's questions is on this page and refreshes daily.